Arin Hanson, the creative mind behind the Egoraptor brand and co-founder of the massive YouTube channel Game Grumps, recently revealed the deep irony of his rise to fame within the Let’s Play genre. Hanson detailed a past where his current career path with Game Grumps was something he actively avoided and even openly criticized.
Before the landscape of gaming content was consolidated into the multi-million dollar industry it is today, the early 2010s were a wild west of high-energy performers. During the episode, Hanson described a childhood in Florida that was already high-octane, but even his own “frantic” personality couldn’t mesh with the way early gamers were presenting themselves online. Hanson’s upbringing was centered more on creating art and hands-on gaming than on recording. He spent his formative years making clay figures and building websites, far removed from the screaming reaction videos that were beginning to dominate the YouTube homepage.
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The most shocking revelation is just how much Hanson disliked the very medium he eventually conquered. He confessed to Naomi Kyle on GameRant’s Character Select that when creators like PewDiePie and Chuggaaconroy first began to blow up, his reaction was one of visceral discomfort. “I hated it,” Hanson revealed. “I remember watching a Tobuscus video and my chest got tight because I was just like, ‘this is so, this is so much energy that’s like, just like coming at me,’ that I can’t handle it. I was a very frantic kind of kid. And it was still like too much for me.”
This hatred culminated in a social media post that has since become a piece of internet lore among his fanbase. “I sort of famously made this tweet that was like, ‘if I ever make a let’s play Kill Me.’ Because that’s, that’s where I was coming from,” Hanson admitted. At the time, he viewed the high-energy, edited style of early Let’s Plays as the antithesis of the thoughtful, design-focused approach he wanted to take with his own work.
The transition from a skeptic to a Let’s Player happened almost by accident. Hanson explained that he had initially purchased a high-end Canon DSLR to experiment with cinematography, but he didn’t have a clear project in mind. His original intention was to move away from pure animation and create a “show where we were like being funny about games, but like also sort of talking about design a little bit.” He tried recording demos with various people, but the results were underwhelming.
Everything changed when he began hanging out with Jon Jafari (JonTron). Their natural chemistry, specifically their tendency to bicker, provided the missing ingredient. “It was becoming more and more frequent where like he and I would just like, get into it,” Hanson told Kyle. “We’d play a game and then we would just argue, and everybody else there was like, ‘this is kind of entertaining that, that you’re like constantly arguing like this.’ And it was like literally a spur of the moment thing where it was like, ‘we should start a podcast. We should call it Game Grumps.'”
Hanson said that the name “Game Grumps” was a direct reference to their constant agitation. “Because we were so angry, like we would just get so worked up, you know?” Instead of the “frantic” energy he once hated, Hanson and Jafari created a format that felt more like a “conversation in a backpack.” The show became a “smash hit out the gate,” fueled by the fact that both creators already had massive followings from their respective parody and review channels.
Decades later, Hanson has found peace with the genre that once made his “chest get tight.” While he still identifies primarily as a “video game girly” and an animator, he has embraced the stability and community that Game Grumps provided. However, the itch for scripted, highly produced work never truly left him. This has led to his current obsession with Gameoverse, a project he described as a “love letter” to the mediums he grew up with.
Reflecting on his journey, Hanson noted that his career has been a series of “ego checking” moments, particularly as he transitions into a screenwriter role for Gameoverse. He told Kyle that he is busier than ever, but feels a sense of fulfillment he hasn’t experienced in years. Despite his early protests, Hanson’s willingness to try the very thing he once hated has earned him a reputation that has led to his current success.
